David Gritten looks at the week in film, including the news that Peter
Morgan will script a new motor racing feature.

You wait ages for a motor racing film, then two come along at once. Last year it was the award-winning documentary Senna. Now there’s news of Rush, the story of two 1970s Formula 1 giants: Britain’s glamorous, raffish James Hunt and the disciplined, methodical Austrian Niki Lauda.

Scripted by Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon), Rush stars Aussie Chris Hemsworth (Thor) as Hunt and Daniel Bruhl (Inglourious Basterds) as Lauda. As in Senna, fierce rivalry is a theme: Hunt v Lauda for Senna v Prost. Also like Senna, it recalls a time when men drove cars, rather than vice versa.

Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind) may seem an odd choice to direct. Yet he has a history of filming cars that go very fast: his feature film debut, in 1977, was Grand Theft Auto.

It’s been 20 years since I last met the gifted Polish director Agnieszka Holland; it was at Shepperton, where she was shooting her intriguing re-working of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s children’s book The Secret Garden.

She’s stayed largely below the radar since then: until this year, that is, when In Darkness, her captivating account of Polish Jews who hid in a city’s sewers for 14 months to avoid capture by the Nazis, was deservedly nominated for the foreign film Oscar.

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Holland, now 63, has quietly been taking the smart option: keeping her hand in by directing episodes of such superior US TV series as The Wire and Treme. In Darkness proves her talent remains undimmed. It opens here next Friday.

The UK film industry is abuzz at the success of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, its capacity for luring older audiences into cinemas (even those who go only rarely), and its startling box-office figures – £7 million in its first 10 days.

It’s all true, though due credit should be paid to Judi Dench, marginally the lead in a strong ensemble cast. Films with Dench in a major role have been automatic hits in Britain, since Iris (£3.7 million) in 2002.

Even more noteworthy is how long Dench-led films are held over in UK cinemas: consider Ladies in Lavender (13 weeks for £3.1 million); Mrs. Henderson Presents (22 weeks, £3.9 million) and Notes on a Scandal ((15 weeks, £5.6 million). No wonder they call her a national treasure.